How to land a career in cybersecurity

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IBM Training & Skills conducted the third in our series of experimental Twitter chats on Thursday, June 20 on “how to land a job in cybersecurity”. The first, on April 11^th, focused on “Which skills are essential in the modern workplace”, and our second, on May 9^th, was about achieving eminence in your workplace. Our next Twitter Chat experiment will be in September (having taken July and August off due to summer holidays) on “How might AI affect my job”.

We invited three expert guests to join us:

• Oscar Calderon, Information Security Manager for IBM Security Managed Security Services
• Kenneth Gonzalez, Offensive Security Consultant at IBM X-Force Red Penetration Tester
• Jared Levy, Cybersecurity Technical Manager, North America Security, Public Sector

We asked four questions about careers in cybersecurity (and have highlighted a few of the responses:

• Q1: What are the hottest roles in cybersecurity? (1401 impressions, 24 engagements)
  • One of the hottest roles right now is the Cybersecurity analyst.
  • 1) IT security specialist 2) Information security analyst 3) Network security engineer 4) Security engineer 5) Application security engineer
  • Once a specialty associated with government and defense contractors, #Cybersecurity is now mainstream. Industries such as health care, finance, manufacturing and retail all hire cybersecurity professionals to protect from breaches
  • Everything related to offensive security (penetration testing) and red teaming are great areas to develop your in cybersecurity!!
• Q2: What types or organizations are hiring cybersecurity professionals? (1626 impressions, 27 engagements)
  • Businesses and organizations of ALL sizes need employees that have a role in #cybersecurity. For small businesses, having someone on staff who is more experienced in technology and security can help give you an advantage!
  • Pretty much every organization out there has Information Security needs. (Data needs to be protected everywhere!) Financial Institutions, Government, Education and Retail are some of the biggest players because of their size
• Q3: Where is the best place to learn about the roles in cybersecurity? (1628 impressions, 28 engagements)
  • Check out IBM’s #newcollar job site to see what #cybersecurity jobs you can land without a degree.
  • The internet is a great resource for finding what new roles and positions businesses are hiring for their #cybersecurity staff. It’s also wise to go out and network at local events where you can meet already established security professionals and ask questions!
  • Explore the NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework, a nationally focused and interactive framework that categorizes and describes cybersecurity work
  • For hands-on experiences (for pentesting):
    – Hack the box (hackthebox.eu)
    – Pentestlab (pentesterlab.com)
    – OvertheWire (overthewire.org/wargames/natas/)
  • A lot of good places. For technical courses:
    – Coursera
    – Cybrary
    – Youtube (Multiple Channels, just look for CyberSecurity)
• Q4: What is the best way to prepare for a role in cybersecurity? (3252 impressions, 54 engagements)
  • According to an article on tech republic, the majority of cyber pros said that gaming teaches skills critical to security, including logic and perseverance, according to a McAfee report.
  • There are numerous learning programs available, ranging from pre-apprenticeships, apprenticeships, Community and degree college programs, industry-led certifications, certificate programs and #newcollar initiatives
  • See what IBM is building with its #certificate programs where you can also earn #IBM #openbadges #IBMTrainingChat ibm.com/newcollar

Join us on September 12th at noon Eastern for our next Twitter Chat on the impact of AI.